What Silicon Valley’s Diversity Reports Say About the Tech Workforce

The Silicon Valley workforce is overwhelmingly white and Asian, according to newly released corporate reports.

Yahoo, Google and LinkedIn recently revealed the racial breakdown of their workers, joining longtime providers of the data Intel and Hewlett-Packard.

Company

Male

Female

Google

71%

29%

Yahoo

67%

33%

LinkedIn

63%

37%

H-P

67%

33%

Intel

76%

24%

The figures show the five companies employ relatively few blacks and Hispanics, and even fewer in managerial or engineering jobs. At both Google and LinkedIn, whites and people of Asian descent make up 91% of the workforce, while Hispanics, blacks and people of other races fill the other 9%.

Many other tech companies don’t disclose the numbers, which must be reported to the federal government but don’t need to be disclosed. Despite a plea at its shareholder meeting from Rev. Jesse Jackson, Facebook recently declined to release the numbers, though operating chief Sheryl Sandberg said Facebook will release a report soon, according to reports. Oracle, eBay, Microsoft and Twitter declined to release the numbers or didn’t respond to inquiries.

The reports also reveal disparities based on the types of work employees do. Yahoo says people of Asian descent make up 57% of its U.S. “tech” workers, but only 24% of “non-tech” workers and 17% in “leadership.”

When women who aren’t white or Asian do show up in the workforce reports, the roles they fill are often subordinate. At Intel, Google and LinkedIn, women who aren’t white or Asian make up 2% of middle managers, but 16% of administrative support workers.

Company

White

Asian

Hispanic

Black

Other

Google

61%

30%

3%

2%

4%

Yahoo

50%

39%

4%

2%

4%

LinkedIn

53%

38%

4%

2%

3%

H-P

72%

14%

6%

7%

1%

Intel

57%

29%

8%

4%

2%

Note: This post has been corrected to show the gender breakdown for the companies’ US workforces. The post initially showed the global gender breakdown for Google, LinkedIn and Yahoo.